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03 Aug 2015 8:03:13am

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There's a pretty big call. How are you going to back that up?

Not wanting to single out anyone in particular, but have you told the other religions yet? I'm thinking at least one or two may have some objections!

On the broader topic; we know that markets and corporations are amoral and thus in need of occasional guidance. Some say they're self correcting, and will naturally act in their own best interests. Those arguments read a lot like survival of the fittest (though fattest often comes to mind), and they don't play too well post GFC. So the questions do the markets need morality and is it in their interests should be asked and perhaps it is better to ask them separately, because some people would argue that those two things are different.

The need of morality is only really separate from the interests of the markets if the markets don't serve a moral purpose. That's different from saying they serve a singular master though so that anyone who imposes morality from a particular perspective probably does so at the expense of others who disagree with that perspective or suffer deleterious effects because of it. Thus some understandable objections from Muslims, Hindus and Jews to Christian morality as applied to market economics.

And on the other hand if the call goes out to democratically elected governments to intervene by regulating then assuming that works or even helps a little then it is democracy and not faith that gets the kudos for that.

Either way anyone is welcome to thank their lucky stars or their faith if things pick up and I can't really stop them from doing that. I just don't think that the doctrine of a Christian monopoly on ideas about trust and financial ethics is likely to be taught in business schools any time soon.